“See all the little holes in the sand,” cried Firetop, when they were quite far out on the beach. “Water spurts out of them every time I step.”
“Let’s dig down and see what does it,” said Firefly. “Maybe it’s something good to eat.”
They took a large shell and scraped away the sand. They had never seen clams before, and Firefly got her finger pinched. Hawk-Eye opened a shell and ate one. He smacked his lips, and then he said, “Dig as many as you can, while I make a fire. Our supper is right here.”
The Twins worked like beavers, while Hawk-Eye and Limberleg made a drift-wood fire far back on the beach in a sheltered place near the cliffs.
Then Limberleg made a bed of seaweed in the coals and put in the clams as fast as the children brought them up from the sand. They must have steamed at least half a bushel! They ate every one, and I am quite sure this was the very first clam-bake that any one ever had in this world.
As they rested beside the fire after supper, warmed and fed, they began to feel more cheerful. Hawk-Eye said: “Anyway, we shall never be hungry while we stay here. Perhaps we shall like it just as well as we liked our forest cave.”
Then Limberleg had a happy thought. “Do you know,” she said, “I believe the water gods were lonesome and are glad that we came! They don’t want us to go away again, and so they made the piece of land fall into the water to keep us here! You remember about that fish! I’m not afraid. I think they mean to take care of us.”
And that was such a comforting thought that they went to sleep and slept soundly all night beside their drift-wood fire.